1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an agricultural feed bagging machine and more particularly to an agricultural feed bagging machine having a bag retainer positioned on the top wall of the tunnel to prevent the folded bag positioned thereon from sliding off the tunnel at a rate greater than that which is desired.
2. Background Information
Agricultural feed bagging machines have been employed for several years to bag or pack silage or the like into elongated plastic bags. Two of the earliest bagging machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,687,061 and 4,046,068. In most prior art bagging machines, the empty plastic bag is folded and is positioned on the tunnel. As the bag is filled with silage or the like, the bag is pulled from the tunnel as the machine moves forwardly. A problem encountered in the prior art machines is that the bags tend to pull from the tunnel at a rate greater than that which is needed. In other words, the bag tends to slide off or pull off as a whole thereby resulting in an improperly filled bag. In the past, attempts have been made to prevent the bag sliding off as a whole by using an elastic stretch cord which is positioned over the bag and the tunnel. The elastic stretch cord is normally attached to one end of the bag pan on one side of the machine and is extended up and over the tunnel and then down to the other side of the bag pan on the other side of the machine.
One problem encountered with the elastic stretch cord is that the cord is flexible and does not offer complete bag retainment. Further, the elastic cords are easily lost or misplaced. Additionally, the cords have to be different lengths for different size tunnels and bag sizes.